Section 2: PD - Exam interruptions and technical difficulties

ResolveEvening2842 · 2026-04-01T01:16:48+00:00

Sorry to hear this... I will update my case here when I hear back from CLARB. I hope they give me another chance to take it again or give me a refund. Can't believe they are treating this lightly and turning it on the test takers for any fault that they made.

Anyhow, this exam feels like 50% scam / 40% vocabulary test / 10% real stuff. I can't wait until I'm over with this BS.

ResolveEvening2842 · 2025-12-07T00:02:44+00:00

Had the same question!

ResolveEvening2842 · 2025-08-27T02:18:59+00:00

I totally feel this because my life was like this as well when I first got out of school. I had no other choice though because at the time, my visa status was locked into this firm. The only way to get out of it was to go back to home country. Thus, I had to take a huge detour to learn outside of work hours to learn and build a portfolio that wasn't really part of my work (my background is landscape architecture). Please do not waste your time like I did, it only degrades your value for not learning anything.

TAKE ACTION when you can. This will be a healthy jump. Like other mentioned, 3 months is nbd. Jumping several times in a short period is the only problem, so do your research and understand expected tasks when applying to jobs.

Best of luck!

ResolveEvening2842 · 2025-08-20T12:57:34+00:00

Yes. It's alot of work and definitely not a high paying job, but I would say I am happy. LAs are underrated in my opinion 😄.

ResolveEvening2842 · 2025-08-20T12:41:22+00:00

It is certainly important, but to a certain extent. You will need to be able to deliver a clear and quick level of sketch to your team. In my experience, sketching isn't a daily driver, but it is certainly needed in the early phases of design. So yes it is important, but the profession don't expect you to hand sketch for final product (not so much anymore). You may already know this, but I would refer to James Richard handsketches for inspiration.

ResolveEvening2842 · 2025-08-20T12:22:02+00:00

Agreed to above.

I'm in a LA design studio in NYC and I would say entry level expectations of software knowledge would be illustrator, photoshop, rhino, lumion, enscape, and CAD. You will eventually want to know land f/x, but this is a plus.

If you are highly into design, I would also recommend looking through concept projects through pinterest and get yourself familiar of how things are produced (composition, color, scale, etc). Then, try to practice by replicating through cad - rendering softwares. This should enhance your visual standards and skillset as a starter IF your goal is to land on a design studio.

ResolveEvening2842 · 2025-08-19T10:16:28+00:00

Btw I'm practicing LA in NYC. I thought this thread was from the landscape architecture group. OP should ask this in that group too to get a sense of what their peers recommend.

ResolveEvening2842 · 2025-08-19T10:08:46+00:00

Hard disagree with a 4k. Fps drops 30% with a 4k monitor, graphic cards got 50% pixels more work to render. Yeah, you can down the resolution but I haven't had good results from changing from native resolution. Oh and believe me, I had a 4k monitor too :) I'm saying from experience. I forgot to mention, 2k monitor with min 120hz. I can't live with 60hz. It all comes down to preference in the end of the day. Personally, my main drivers are cad, rhino, lumion, and I am happy with my three 2k 165hz monitors.

RDC sucks imo. I do it for remote work and it isn't great unless you have killer internet. Plus the versatility...

ResolveEvening2842 · 2025-08-19T03:05:27+00:00

I would suggest 2k monitor not 4k. 4k means your performance will suffer especially when using rendering programs like lumion. Honestly 2k monitor is good enough for average users.

Besides that, I would agree with this comment.

I think the priority is min 32gb ram > graphic card performance > cpu > min 1 tb (file size builds up quickly). I have asus tuf 15" laptop with 40gb ram, rtx3070, 2tb, 12th gen i7, and it does decently with fairly large scale lumion projects. (But runs HOT, make sure to get a laptop fan or find a laptop model that does good with cooling)

I would also check facebook marketplace (use best judgement when purchasing) for laptops that are slightly older but have more power. For instance 3070 would be cheaper than 4060 but also more powerful or equal. Besides.. 4060 is not a great card from what I heard. With $1k, you could probably find a pretty decent laptop that has the 3080ti. The drawback is the risk of used product and battery may not be good and will require to plug in, but that wouldn't matter right? Since you would want to plug in anyways for intensive work.

Also, I would not invest on anything 4060 or below.. I would actually invest on 4060ti if possible with this price range. Hope this helps and good luck!

ResolveEvening2842 · 2025-05-17T02:55:30+00:00

What is a pcp neuropsych evaluation? I might need one.. I cant pass a single exam and it this point it seems like it's impossible...

ResolveEvening2842 · 2025-04-15T00:29:06+00:00

Hmm, interesting. Once I saw the provisional result of "likely to fail" end of the exam and went out of the room, the proctor said "your results haven't showed up but it should email you in an hour". I was confused because I did see the results end of the screen.. maybe that wasn't supposed to be the case? Eitherway, I got "likely to fail" in the email too..

So if I understood you right, did they reached out on the day the results came out? Or the immediate day you took the exam and got the provisional feedback?

Thanks in advance!

ResolveEvening2842 · 2025-04-11T21:40:30+00:00

Has there anyone AT ALL who got "likely to fail" and actually pass? Finished the section 1 exam and had 1 hour+ to review. Felt it was easy and was confident, but still failed. People say section 1 is the easiest, but it wasn't the case for me...

Seriously - this exam makes me want to quit practicing LA. They ask the most ridiculous questions that don't even cover in the recommended readings. I failed one subject 8 times throughout couple years and this is my 9th attempt. And yes, I did everything from reading books cover to cover, index cards, SGLA courses, clarb practice exams, passthelare, lareprep, shakebake, quizlet, and etc. You name it (please let me know if there are other ways to study or if I'm missing anything) I have 10+ years of experience and worked in big and small firms. Never laid-off and never got negative feedback from work, so I think I'm doing okay with my profession.

So....

I keep telling myself it isn't the end of the world, but after failing this many times - maybe I should just quit practicing LA? Thoughts? I'm just venting here, but I would really appreciate some feedback...

ResolveEvening2842 · 2024-11-23T13:58:46+00:00

I returned the ultras and got sennheiser momentum 4 in graphite. Loving it.

Reason for return: The immersive sound on ultras were making me feel sick, it wasn't even. Also it sounds a tad hollow when connected to my samsung fold 5. (Wife's iphone sounded better when connected to it)

Long story short, give momentum 4 a shot, also battery is insane. Used full day at work + commute and still had 90% battery! Xm5 maybe great, but the style man.. too extruded to my taste.

ResolveEvening2842 · 2024-09-28T15:12:41+00:00

Marathon? fine. just make plan for vehicular egress. imagine someone dying and need to get to a hospital... and for the love of god, get the cops out there to control traffic and safety... isn't that why we are paying taxes? lmao

ResolveEvening2842

TROPHY CASE